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Cannot vs Wont - What's the difference?

cannot | wont |

As verbs the difference between cannot and wont

is that cannot is not (am/is/are unable to) while wont is (archaic) to make (someone) used to; to accustom.

As nouns the difference between cannot and wont

is that cannot is something that cannot be done while wont is one’s habitual way of doing things, practice, custom.

As an adjective wont is

(archaic) accustomed or used (to'' or ''with a thing).

cannot

English

Verb

(head)
  • not (am/is/are unable to).
  • Am/are/is forbidden or not permitted to
  • * 1668 December 19, , “Mr.'' Alexander Seaton ''contra'' Menzies” in ''The Deci?ions of the Lords of Council & Se??ion I (Edinburgh, 1683), page 575
    • The Pupil after his Pupillarity, had granted a Di?charge to one of the Co-tutors, which did extingui?h the whole Debt of that Co-tutor, and con?equently of all the re?t, they being all correi debendi , lyable by one individual Obligation, which cannot be Di?charged as to one, and ?tand as to all the re?t.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-21, author= Karen McVeigh
    • , volume=189, issue=2, page=10, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= US rules human genes can't be patented , passage=The US supreme court has ruled unanimously that natural human genes cannot be patented, a decision that scientists and civil rights campaigners said removed a major barrier to patient care and medical innovation.}}
    Usage notes
    Both the one-word form cannot' and the two-word form '''can not''' are acceptable, but '''cannot''' is more common (in the , three times as common). The two-word form is better only in a construction in which '''not is part of a set phrase, such as 'not only... but (also)': ''Paul can not only sing well, but also paint brilliantly .

    Synonyms

    * can't

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Something that cannot be done.
    • the cans and cannots

    Statistics

    *

    Anagrams

    * English auxiliary verb forms ----

    wont

    English

    Etymology 1

    Origin uncertain: apparently a conflation of (wone) and wont (participle adjective, below).

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • One’s habitual way of doing things, practice, custom.
    • He awoke at the crack of dawn, as was his wont .
  • * Milton
    • They are to be called out to their military motions, under sky or covert, according to the season, as was the Roman wont .
  • * 2006 , Orhan Pamuk, My Name Is Red:
    • With a simple-minded desire, and to rid my mind of this irrepressible urge, I retired to a corner of the room, as was my wont [...]
  • * 1920 , James Brown Scott, The United States of America: A Study in International Organization , page 142:
    • As was also the wont of international conferences, a delegate from Pennsylvania, in this instance James Wilson, proposed the appointment of a secretary and nominated William Temple Franklin
  • * 1914 , Items of interest - Page 83:
    • Such conditions, having been the common practice for years, and, existing in a less degree in some localities to the present time, afford a tangible reason for a form of correlation that is more universal than it is the wont of the profession to admit [...]

    Etymology 2

    (etyl) .

    Adjective

    (-)
  • (archaic) Accustomed or used (to'' or ''with a thing).
  • * Shakespeare
    • I have not that alacrity of spirit, / Nor cheer of mind, that I was wont to have.
  • * 1843 , '', book 2, ch. XI, ''The Abbot’s Ways
    • He could read English Manuscripts very elegantly, elegantissime : he was wont to preach to the people in the English tongue, though according to the dialect of Norfolk, where he had been brought up
  • (designating habitual behaviour) Accustomed, apt (to doing something).
    • He is wont to complain loudly about his job.
    Like a 60-yard Percy Harvin touchdown run or a Joe Haden interception return, Urban Meyer’s jaw-dropping resignation Saturday was, as he’s wont to say, “a game-changer.” — Sunday December 27, 2009, Stewart Mandel, INSIDE COLLEGE FOOTBALL'', ''Meyer’s shocking resignation rocks college coaching landscape
    See also
    * * prone to

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (archaic) To make (someone) used to; to accustom.
  • (archaic) To be accustomed.
  • * 1590 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , III.2:
    • But by record of antique times I finde / That wemen wont in warres to beare most sway [...].

    Anagrams

    * *